The criminal law aspects of robotics or the first corpse are not counted
In the introduction, robots are defined in terms of their generations, which at the same time corresponds to the possibilities and limits for each category. The following is a description of autonomous robots. The main part of the text deals with the responsibility for unlawful orminimally undesirable consequences of robot operation. Thus, the operation of a robot can establish liability for damage as a consequence of a civil law offense or criminal liability. Or both.
This is not revealing in the case of machines and equipment. Here, however, there are indications of new factors that can be referred to as the "robot control limit" problem and the "robot failure predictability" problem. And all this makes it much more difficult to determine the liability of a natural or legal person for the detrimental effect of the robot's operation, including the finding or proving of a causal link between the actions of a natural or legal person and the aforementioned consequences. In other words, there will be problems caused by the unforeseen or unpredictable failures of the robot, either in terms of its software or hardware. The more the self-learning or autonomous robot, the more complex it will be to find out why the robot acted as he did. But the role will play to what extent the robot's activity has been controlled to prevent a larger scale of this failure. And, of course, in the event that this unpredictability is argued in the event of an undesirable result of the robot's operation.
It will be absolutely indispensable to address the extent to which this failure could have been foreseen in the construction of the robot and whether at this stage or perhaps at the production stage there were no negotiations that could be caused by the causal link with the consequence and then considering the fault or fulfillment of the facts the nature of the offense. This opens up a considerable, if not vast, space for technical and legal analysis of what could be assumed to be a possible failure in the construction and programming of the robot, what could be prevented by appropriate adaptations in this assumption and what is in the category of coincidence or so-called vis major. And in particular, if any adverse events occurred, to what extent a particular manufacturer or manufacturer was able to learn from a random event and take steps to avoid repetition. This includes the existence of "black boxes" and "red buttons" or other tools to keep control of the robot's actions.
Developing the capabilities of autonomous mechanisms and their intellectual capabilities will therefore be a major challenge both in the area of prevention - the security of information systems that represent the "soul" of the robot, and in terms of repression, ie in the area of criminal law and criminology.
Prof. Ing. Vladimír SMEJKAL, CSc., LL.M.
He is a professor at Brno University of Technology (BUT) and rector of Moravian University College Olomouc (MUCO), an expert in law, economics, management and security of information systems, including their security and legal aspects. He is a member of the Scientific Board Faculty of Business of BUT and chairman of the Academic Council of the Moravian College Olomouc.
In 1986 he was appointed Minister of Justice Czechoslovakia as a court expert in the fields of economics and cybernetics, in 1995 and 2001, he was appointed Minister of Justice forensic as an expert in other fields, and forensics – data protection and copyright. In the years 2004-2014 he was a member of the Legislative Council of the Government of the Czech Republic. He participated among others on a series of legislative work in the Czech Republic in the field of informatics. Significant effect has his share in the Electronic Signature Act, the Electronic legal acts and document conversion and other Czech legislation on electronic communications, especially in the field of public administration. Prof. Smejkal is the author or co-author of several books: Počítačové právo (1995), Internet a paragrafy (1999 a 2001), Právo informačních a telekomunikačních systémů (2001 a 2004), Řízení rizik ve firmách a jiných organizacích (2003, 2006, 2009 a 2013), eGovernment v České republice. Právní a technologické aspekty (2012). He wrote many interdisciplinary articles in IT security and justice. In 2015, he released his most important publication Kybernetická kriminalita.
JUDr. Tomáš Sokol
He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague in 1978 and he received his doctorate in 1980. After graduating he joined the 2nd Legal Advice Bureau in Prague as a legal assistant. After passing his bar exam in 1980, he has been practicing law continuously with the exception of years 1990 - 1992, when he served as the City Attorney in Prague (1990), and then he was the Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic (1990 - 1992).
In the second half of 1992, he and JUDr. Jan Brož co-founded Brož & Sokol law firm, which got renamed to Brož & Sokol & Novák law firm in 1999.
Dr. Sokol provides legal services in the area of civil and criminal law. In the area of criminal law he focuses on issues of economic crime in particular. In commercial law, a part of his agenda is the management of general meetings of joint-stock companies, particularly in cases when a conflict of shareholders is expected during the general meeting.
Dr. Sokol represents companies in judicial proceedings and in arbitration proceedings, where he also makes use of his arbitrating experience. In this area he also provides legal services to the public sector. He is a consultant in the area of dealing with internal problems of a company, selling parts of a corporate enterprise, etc.
Dr. Sokol also provides legal services in the area of civil law, where he specializes, among other things, on disputes over protection of personality, including disputes over protection of goodwill legal entity.
A specific area is providing legal services to municipalities, of which the largest one is the capital - Prague.
Within the legal profession, he is also active in training legal assistants.
- an attorney-at-law of the Czech Bar Association
- since 2004 has been registered as an attorney-at-law at the Slovak Bar Association
- since 2009, he has been a member of the Appeal Disciplinary Commission of the Czech Bar Association (before that, from 1995 to 2009 a member of the Disciplinary Commission of the Czech Bar Association)
- since 1997 an examiner for criminal law in bar exams member of the Criminal Law Department of the Czech Bar Association
- since 2004 a member of the Committee for technical support and protection of the interests of lawyers
- since 2000 a member of the editorial board of Legal Advisor magazine (Právní rádce)
- registered on the list of arbitrators at Ministry of Justice according to Act no. 216/1994 Coll.
- a member of the Re-codification Commission for Criminal Procedure Code a founding member of the Union of Czech Lawyers (Unie obhájců České Republiky), president of the Union. in 2005, he finished second in the Lawyer of the year contest in the field of IT, advertising, and public vote
- in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, he was elected the Lawyer by public vote (after that the category did not take place anymore)
- in 2009 he received an award from the president of the Czech Bar Association "For Contribution to the Czech Legal Profession"
- for about 15 years, he has been a member of the Arbitration Commission of the Czech Basketball Federation, since 2010 he has been a chairman of the Commission
- chairman of the arbitration Commission of the Czech Volleyball Association
- since 29th September 2011 he has been active with pedagogical activities as a fellow at the Department of public law and public administration at the CEVRO Institute University, o.p.s., Prague 1. Since 2017 vice-chairman of the Czech Bar Association
Publication activities
co-author of books: Computer Law and Information and Telecommunication Systems Law (Počítačové právo a Právo informačních a telekomunikačních systémů) whose second edition was awarded the annual price of the Czech Association of Competent Communications for the year of 2004
author of Print and Law (Tisk a právo; Orac publishing house, 2000)
co-author of The Law on Advocacy (Wolters Kluwer, 2017)
since 1990 he has been publishing in professional press (Bulletin advokacie, Právní rádce Eprávo and others), and in newspapers (Hospodářské noviny, MF Dnes, Ona Dnes magazine and others).
Phone: +420 737 215 220
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